US Forest Service Perspective
From the Forest Service perspective, the TFRSAC has been a very successful organization. It has focused and leveraged the efforts of scientists at NASA Ames Research Center to real-world wildfire problems, and through close collaboration, has provided ground breaking solutions that are now being embraced by the Forest Service and the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho. Without the support of NASA Ames, it would have been impossible for the Forest Service to arrive at these solutions with extremely limited research funds, and more importantly, limited expertise in the highly technical areas of sensor and platform development.
Technology Transfer
New business opportunities - As a result of our close relationship with NASA, within the framework of the Wildfire Research Applications Partnership (WRAP), the Forest Service is actively pursuing several areas of technology transfer opportunities.
Future GoalsSmall Unmanned Airborne Systems Past UAS Projects
Planned UAS Projects
Over the past five years, RSAC has worked in partnership with NASA-Ames Research Center to demonstrate the feasibility of using small UASs to help manage wildland fires. The goal of these demonstration missions has been to develop operational guidelines, safety standards, and contracting rules so that firefighters can include small UAS in their toolkit. The Forest Service believes that UAS can augment manned aircraft for fires in areas that are currently underserved or where safety issues or long flying times make manned aircraft impractical. During a NASA - Forest Service demonstration at Fort Hunter Liggett (June 2006), many UAS capabilities were safely demonstrated: safe operations, daytime flights over fires, nighttime flights over fires, thermal image acquisition, tactical real-time thermal image acquisition, long duration flight capability, transpeater, see-and-avoid display system integration. In 2008, there are two projects planned for small UAS; the 2008 WildFire Project which will pair a qualified UAS vendor with a single active wildfire command to acquire imagery over the fire, and the 2008 Nevada Forest Inventory Analysis Project, which will use a small UAS to acquire high resolution imagery over forest inventory plots in Nevada. Airspace management for both projects will require close coordination between the Forest Service and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). In terms of technical advances, the ability of the UAS to repeatedly capture the same location on the ground while in autonomous flight needs to be tested. Satellite Communications Solutions for National Infrared Operations (NIROPS) Aircraft Following the lead of the NASA Ikhana aircraft as demonstrated in the 2007 WSFM, a proposed satellite communication system will be installed on the National Infrared Operations (NIROPS) aircraft in 2008 to improve delivery of critical thermal mapping support to the wildfire incident commands throughout the fire season. The addition of sitcom communications to the aircraft will provide three immediate benefits:
The addition of satellite communication equipment to both Forest Service infrared mapping aircraft will enhance NIROPS ability to serve the wildland firefighter. AMS Sensor The AMS sensor development started with the Yellowstone fires in 1988 and was the sensor used on the Ikhana during the 2007 wildfire missions. The sensor has been equipped for complete real-time, onboard processing. The NAV system is a gyro and laser with Omni-star GPS differentially corrected GPS and geo-rectified map registration. The accuracy of pixel location depends on the quality of the digital elevation model (DEM). The data are provided for telemetry through a communications link after collection and geo- and terrain-correction have occurred. The sensor system is currently being "duplicated" by a business consortium of Xiomas, Inc, Argon ST and NASA-Ames. The instrument will be marketable to national and international entities upon contacting Xiomas and Argon ST personnel (johngreen@xiomas.com and Fred.Osterwisch@argonst.com). The USFS is currently working to procure capabilities demonstrated with the AMS-Wildfire and also looking to integrate the sensor on their platforms for future intermediate use as needed. The NASA Ikhana UAS will be available for mission use by agencies (state and federal) in the future (2009 and beyond) on a cost-reimbursable basis.
The NASA - Forest Service relationship has been very beneficial in terms of evaluating new technologies that provide immediate results to the users in the wildfire community. The framework of the Tactical Fire Remote Sensing Advisory Committee (TFRSAC) allows NASA scientists to work closely with the fire community to ensure that evaluated and developed technology is well guided. This relationship is valuable for the fire management agencies and for the taxpaying community. The TFRSAC group will continue with technology eveluations, meeting twice per year (Spring and Fall) to work towards the integration of new technologies into operational use in the fire management community. In particular, the Forest Service would like to see a joint evaluation of wildfire decision support systems to improve decision making in all phases of wildfire suppression (pre-, active-, and post- fire).
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